As a nutrition expert, I often get asked this question quite a bit: “Should I sprout my grains?” And while I wish the answer was as simple as “yes” or “no,” the truth is (like most anything else) that how you prepare your grains is a personal choice you’ll need to make for yourself.

In essence, both sprouted and non-sprouted grains are best, depending on the person and their ability to digest the grains. Some people find sprouted grains and even sprouted grain protein powders work amazing for them, while others find them almost impossible to digest and even painful at that. Much like some people digest raw vegetables better than cooked vegetables, grains should be consumed however you tolerate them best.

The Case for Sprouted Grains

Sprouting grains is a wonderful idea due to the many health benefits that come from doing so. When you soak and sprout grains, it lowers the amount of phytic acid, gluten, and lectin they contain. All of these can cause many nutritional deficiencies, so sprouting is a great way to prevent that from happening. Sprouting also lowers the starch grains contain, which may make them lower in overall digestible carbohydrates. Then, there’s the idea that sprouted grains contain more “life force” since they’re exceptionally high in enzymes and protein. With all these benefits, it’s definitely worth a shot to sprout your own grains and see how things go. Learn exactly how to sprout your grains properly here.

The Other Side of the Sprouted Grain Story

However, like some other healthy foods, sprouted grains aren’t necessarily for everyone. If you don’t digest sprouted grains well, you could be doing more harm than good. Whatever your body doesn’t digest well, it certainly won’t benefit much from. Without properly digesting a food, you’re missing out on all the nutrients you should be obtaining from it. This includes sprouted grains. I’ve seen many people develop digestive problems because they dove right into eating sprouted grains, and their bodies simply weren’t ready for all that “aliveness” going on! Then there are others who can chow down a monstrous bowl of sprouted grains, seeds, nuts, and even beans, and do absolutely fine.

Even if you do tolerate sprouted grains, don’t be afraid to eat them without sprouting them. Besides, who can turn down a hot, cooked bowl of warm oatmeal on a cool autumn morning? Not me! You can also sprout your grains and then cook them, but technically, this destroys their enzymes they contain (though you will still benefit from the proteins they contain.)

The Next Best Option to Sprouted Grains: Soaked Grains

For those that don’t tolerate sprouted grains or just don’t want to go through the trouble, there is another awesome alternative: soaked grains, which are like the “middle man” between non-sprouted and sprouted grains. All you have to do is simply soak your grains overnight in the fridge before cooking them the next morning. This still removes the phytic acid, making them easier to digest, but doesn’t cause them to sprout just yet (which only happens at room temperature after a couple of days.)

To soak your grains (such as oats, rye, barley, or rice) without sprouting them, just place them in double the amount of water, rinse in the morning, and cook away! Some grains that don’t require soaking are millet, amaranth, teff, quinoa, and wild rice. All of these are technically not grains, which makes them much easier to digest anyway. You’ll need to give them a quick rinse but other than that, you can just cook and enjoy!

Ingredients

Directions

To make the quinoa flour, soak 3-4 cups of dry quinoa for about 4 hours. Drain water and let sit for a day or so (Rinse once or twice during this time). You’ll soon see the little tails, and it will be ready to go. Spread the sprouts on dehydrator sheets and dry at a low heat for 4-5 hours. When dry to touch, grind in batches in a blender or coffee grinder. I did not sift my flour, but if you want a finer grain you could.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix together: quinoa flour, maca, mesquite, salt.
In a separate bowl, combine the chia seeds with the 1 1/2 cups of water and set aside.
In a blender, combine the olive oil, dates and zuchini. Add this to the chia goop and mix well. Then combine the dry and wet ingredients in the large bowl and mix well with a spoon (and/or your hands) until well combined.
Divide the dough into four equal parts. Using an offset spatula, spread the mix on dehydrator sheets to an even thickness. Or, place a second sheet on top of the dough and roll out with a rolling pin. Trim the edges so you have a big square shape. Another tip is to place a piece of shelf liner that people use to keep their dishes from slipping in cabinets (it’s white and a little puffy and net-like) under the bottom sheet to prevent slippage. It works like a charm.
Dehydrate for several hours before flipping, scoring (I do 9 equal squares) and returning to dehydrate without the teflex sheets until the bread is to your preferred texture.

Lay on dehydrator sheets at 105 degrees F for 12-24 hours or more, until completely crisp (consume with the skins on for full flavor and health benefits). Makes 2-4 servings. Will keep, covered at room temperature, for up to a week (though mine have never lasted that long).

in a large bowl, mash the beans with a potato masher or large fork until almost smooth (but leave a little texture). Add remaining ingredients, including quinoa, and, with clean hands, knead the “dough” to combine well.

Using a small ice cream scoop or tablespoon, scoop the mixture and roll into balls. Place on dehydrator sheets at 105 degrees F and warm for 4 hours or more, to taste. Serve immediately, or store in a covered container in the refrigerator up to 5 days. Makes about two dozen. May be frozen.

Sprouted Flour Recipes

To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co. believes in the traditional practice and artistry of preparing whole foods as God provided them to us to eat. Your favorite bread recipes – from batter breads, artisan, and sourdough will work beautifully with our flours and we’ve included a great bread machine recipe for you folks on the go.

We hope you enjoy making these yummy breads and baked goods as much as
we do here at To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co.

We’d love to share your favorite recipes as well. Let us know if you have one you’re especially fond of and we may post it here on our website.

Cream butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition. Blend in vanilla. Stir baking powder into flour. Add cream and flour mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Pour into a buttered and floured bundt pan and bake at 325 degrees for 1 ½ hours.

5. Rick’s Rocking Gumbo

(Don’t let the length of the recipe discourage you. This is the best gumbo I’ve ever eaten and easy to make.)

Peel the shrimp and toss the heads and tails into a large stock pot. Refrigerate the peeled shrimp until ready to put into the gumbo. Add the onion, bay leaves, thyme, cayenne pepper, Old Bay and lemons (or juice) to pot. Cover with 2 ½ quarts water (or water and stock), allow the liquid to slowly come to a boil, then lower the heat. Gently simmer for 45 minutes uncovered, skimming any foam off that rises to the top of pot. Strain the stock into another pot to remove the chunky solids. At this point you should have about 2 quarts of broth to use in the gumbo. Cool until needed.

To make the gumbo:

You must start with a roux base, so melt the butter over medium-low heat in a large Dutch oven or other heavy bottomed pot. Add flour, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or whisk, to prevent lumps. Cook the roux until it is the color of walnuts, and smells equally nutty. This should take about 5-7 minutes. Add the onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and okra, and season with salt, cayenne and Old Bay. Mix in the tomatoes, bay leaves and thyme, and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring until the vegetables are soft. Pour in the cooled shrimp stock and stir until mixture is well blended. Bring the mixture to a boil, add sliced sausage, and reduce heat to simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the gumbo darkens slightly and thickens. Toss in the shrimp, oysters, and crawfish tails (or crab and grouper). Cook another 10-15 minutes and taste. If seasoning needs to be adjusted, do so now.

To serve:

Ladle the gumbo into a shallow bowl and pile rice in the center. Sprinkle with gumbo file, green onions and parsley. Enjoy with lots of crusty French bread, butter and hot sauce at the table.

Soak whole grain flour in buttermilk, kefir or yogurt in a warm place
for 12 to 24 hours. (Those with milk allergies may use 2 cups filtered
water plus 2 tablespoons whey, lemon juice or vinegar in place of undiluted
buttermilk, kefir or yogurt.)

Stir in other ingredients and thin to desired consistency with water.

Cook on a hot, oiled griddle or in a cast-iron skillet. These pancakes
cook more slowly than unsoaked flour or white flour pancakes.The texture
will be chewy and thetaste pleasantly sour.

Step 1. Mix together flour, salt and baking powder. You can sift it into a bowl, or you can just put in the bowl and whisk together well. (If you prefer to use a food processor, you first put in dry ingredients and pulse a couple of times for 5 seconds each time.)Step 2. Cut or rub in 4 Tablespoons butter or lard until it’s a small seed like consistency. (You can also cut this in with a Food Processor as well.)Step 3. Put 1/8 teaspoon baking soda in the bottom of a glass measuring cup. Add the 1 cup of thin yogurt, buttermilk or cultured milk and stir well – until you can see the bubbles on the top, which means that the soda and the liquid have begun to act with each other.Step 4. Mix the liquid into the dry ingredients stirring to mix well, but not over stirring. (If you use the Food Processor, do not over mix).Step 5. Turn the dough out on floured parchment paper. Roll out lightly and cut with a biscuit cutter. (Yes, you can use a glass or a mason jar — only it presses the dough down so your biscuits may not rise as high. Also remember to flour your cutter before each cut.)Step 6: Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. They will brown lightly on top.Step 7: Enjoy with butter, honey, jam, or with eggs, sausage and sausage gravy.This recipe for sprouted einkorn flour was submitted by Suzanne of www.realfoodlifestyle.com . Suzanne is a fan of To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co. and has designed several great recipes using our sprouted flours, including some that are GAPS friendly. Here’s Suzanne’s history behind her biscuit recipe:

Country Biscuits — a 200+ Year Old Tradition Revived w/ Einkorn

In the 1780′s, the Revolutionary War having been won, Patrick Kendrick Sr., his wife and family and members of the Horton family moved 400 miles from Stafford, VA. to the Southwestern part of the Appalachian mountains in the Clinch Valley. The log cabin they built was a part of the home I grew up in during the 1950′s and 60′s. It’s where I developed my love of real food, gardening, raw milk, homemade butter, buttermilk and biscuits - Most of all biscuits. On Sundays, my grandmother, Corrie, would make biscuits and I stood right there watching her every move. Sometimes she would let me sift the flour and dry ingredients, sometimes I got to stir the dough. Always, I got to taste it. I love raw dough, and can tell from one taste whether the end product will turn out. It all started there with little bits of dough from the blue and white enameled metal bowl that was our “biscuit bowl”.

Corrie learned to make biscuits from her mother, and the tradition has been carried forward from mother to daughter or granddaughter. As far as I know, the roots of this recipe probably go back before the 1800′s.

14. TYH’s Bread Recipe

(Makes 1 large, or 2 small loaves)

This is a great batter bread that will result in a wonderful bread for slicing and toasting. Not suitable for sandwiches. If your dough runs on the dry side, increase your liquid 2 tablespoons at a time until you get the consistency you want.

Mix flour and buttermilk into a batter by hand, in electric stand mixer or in food processor. Thoroughly blend in remaining ingredients. Pour into a well-buttered and floured loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1-1 ½ hours, or until a toothpick comes out clean. NOTE: You may need to experiment with oven temps and time. You can tent the loaf tops with foil and lower temp to 325 degrees for a longer baking time if center is doughy and tops brown before center is done.

16. Wild Sourdough Bread

Starter – 2 cups of sprouted rye flour mixed with 2 cups of filtered water. You want to use non–chlorinated, non–florinated water (reverse osmosis), but not dead water (distilled). Mix well in a large bowl (needs to hold at least 1 gallon ), cover with a thin tea towel or cheesecloth and place on your back porch, balcony or some other safe place outdoors. Leave for 24 hours. Bring your starter in, pour it into a clean bowl (same size) and add 1 cup of sprouted rye flour and 1 cup of filtered water. Cover and outdoors it goes again. Repeat the transferring to a clean bowl and feeding process for at least 5 days, but up to 7 days (I fed my first starter for 7 days, my subsequent starter for 5 days). Your starter will begin to bubble between days 2–3 and take on a pleasing wine aroma by day 5–6.

You can also make your starter with sprouted wheat or spelt flour. I discovered that my wheat starter was not quite as active as my rye starter and I haven’t tried spelt yet.

Bread – A recipe is a guideline at best for me so I haven’t really measured how much flour I’ve used in a recipe yet. I promise to get better at this because I know many of you like to be precise.

Remove a pint of your starter (You can start the feeding process over at this point by adding 1 cup each of flour and filtered water to the pint of starter, or you can put the pint of starter in the refrigerator until you get ready to feed it again for further bread making). Place the remainder of starter in a clean bowl. Add 1 cup of filtered water to it, 5–7 cups of sprouted flour (I use sprouted wheat flour ) and 2 tablespoons of salt. Mix until your dough is thick enough to get your hands in it and knead for 7–10 minutes. Your dough should not be too thick so after adding 4 cups of flour, add your remaining flour a ¼ cup at a time. Once your dough has been kneaded enough it will take on an elasticity. It will not be as glossy as a regular flour bread dough, but the elasticity will be evident.

Let your dough rest for about 5–10 minutes. Cut it into 2 pieces and shape it to fit 2 buttered bread pans (I use ceramic breads pans by Emile Henry). Brush tops with olive oil, cover pans loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise (I usually leave overnight for convenience, but the rising process may take only 4-6 hours depending on the temperature in your home).

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees for at least 30 minutes before baking. Place your pans on a granite or pizza stone in the bottom of your oven, or place on a rack in the lowest position of your oven, and bake for about 1 hour. Remove bread from pans immediately after taking them from your oven. Let loaves cool on cooling rack before slicing.

This is a good compromise bread that can be sliced and used for sandwiches.
Yeast is used, but the flour is soaked in buttermilk first.

Combine flour, 1 cup buttermilk and butter in a food processor until
a ball forms. If dough is too thick, add more buttermilk, but it should
be thick enough to form a ball. Place in a bowl, cover with a towel
and leave in a warm place for 12-24 hours.

Combine water, yeast and honey in a small bowl and leave for 5 minutes
or until it bubbles. Add salt and baking soda and mix well. Place half
the flour mixture, half the yeast mixture and ½ cup unbleached white
flour in a food processor. Process until a smooth ball forms. Repeat
with the other half of dough, yeast mixture and white flour.

Knead the two balls together briefly and place in a buttered bowl.
Cover with a towel and let rise 2 hours, until doubled in bulk.

Punch down, cut the dough in half and process each half in a food
processor for30 seconds each.

Form into loaves and place in buttered loaf pans (preferably stoneware).
Cover with a towel and let rise 1-2 hours, until doubled.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Beat butter, sugars and vanilla in a large bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate or carob and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Directions:
1. Soak sesame seeds 40 minutes.
2. Place chia seeds in a bowl and cover with ½ cup water. Let soak for at least 20 minutes. At this time you can prepare everything else.
3. Blend all ingredients in a food processor until a dough is created – it should form a ball in the food processor (add water if too dry, one tablespoon at a time).
Spread on parchment paper on dehydrator sheets very thin, with holes in the batter, and score with a knife into crackers shapes: triangles, squares or circles! Flip the sheets at 12 hours.Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 24 hours or until crispy.

Avocado Selection Tip: Place the avocado in the palm of your hand and squeeze gently. If it gives a little to your touch, it’s ripe and should be used right away. If it feels hard, it’s not ripe, so place in a brown bag and store in a dark place for two days. Don’t refrigerate.

Hummus is traditionally made with garbanzo beans, but any creamy legume will do. Try this lentil version anywhere you’d use traditional hummus. Use red lentils, if you wish. They make a beautiful hummus! Lentils can be found in the bulk section of many grocery stores or at Middle Eastern markets. The hummus can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups water

1 1/2 cup dried red lentils

2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 tablespoons tahini, cashew or almond butter

5 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 teaspoons himalayan crystal, or other salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper or 21 Seasonings Salute

INSTRUCTIONS

Take 1 1/2 c. lentils and put them in a jar. Cover with water and let sit for 1 day. Drain the water and let them sit for one day, until little sprouts appear.

Place lentils, garlic, and tahini in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade attachment, a coffee grinder or personal food processor and pulse until lentils are broken up, about 10 pulses.

With the motor running, add oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and blend until evenly incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and blend for 40 seconds more or until smooth.

This is an easy, flavorful bread than can be used to make sandwiches, to dip or to eat alone. This is an easy recipe for variations!Eat with everything:with hummus, tomatoes, avocado or a salad!

Sprout 2 c. spelt by soaking seeds overnight in water, then pouring off and letting sit on the counter. Rinse and drain again that evening, then the morning and evening of the next day, until you see little sprous.

1/3 of a ½ gallon Mason jar full of raw rolled oats, soaked, drained and sprouted if possible
¾-1 cup of raw sesame seeds, soaked for an hour at least, drained and ground with a cup or so of water to make tahini
2 cloves garlic
1+ lemon (all the juice and a little of the rind)
2 soaked Mejool dates
1 stalk celery

· Fill the rest of your Blend Tec or Vitamix with shredded carrots and zucchini.
Water – enough to keep the blender from overheating but not enough to make it watery – about 1 to 1 ¼ cups I think.

think that’s it. Spread out on 3 dehyrdrator sheets and cook on 104 degrees until thoroughly dry. Flip them over halfway through the time period if you are around; no big deal.